Gold Coast (Day 43)

I feel like I only had a few short hours away from Carl's place.

After arriving home late last evening thanks to my cab ride with a giant, I got to sleep and woke up just in time to start heading back in to Carl's. Whitey had slept there and he decided that was going to be where we were leaving from for our trip to the Gold Coast. I hadn't brought anything with me last night though so I really had no choice but to head back home before hitching a ride with the guys for the beach. I am sure there would have been easier ways to get back to Carl's than by walking but what good would that do me?

Once again, despite my whingeing about my own poor lifestyle choices, I made a stop at McDonald's. I didn't really want anything but I needed to use the restroom during my walk. And while I was there, I thought it would only be polite of me to call the guys and see if they wanted me to get them anything. At first, neither Carl nor Whitey answered their phones so I started walking away, not having bought anything. It was a good start.

Whitey called me back when I wasn't more than 10 metres away though and I told him I was phoning to see if they wanted anything. Of course they did, so he started giving me the order and then changed his mind and decided they would just meet me there. And then I obviously couldn't just wait around doing nothing, so I went in and ordered a smoothie. Strike one.

When Whitey, Carl and Dave-O got there I decided that I was hungry and I made Carl order an extra hashbrown for me too. Strike two.

Then Whitey suggested that I call SJ to see if he wanted anything before we went to pick him up. I got him a breakfast meal and on the way to getting him, I might have taken a bite out of his food. Strike three. Too much McDonald's. I don't even eat it at home. I'm like a different person here. And not in a good way.

We went from there to pick up SJ and along the way Carl started putting together rules for what would become the drinking game for the night. We began compiling a list of phrases and baseball things, marking the number of drinks each person would have to take if they came up during the All-Star Game in Perth. There were several categories and denominations of drinks to go with each one.

The five of us made it to the Gold Coast with no major mishaps, which is kind of a miracle for this group of people. I tried to get ahold of Chambers on the way because I think the original plan was to head to his place, but he happened to be back in Brisbane throwing a bullpen session for a prospective employer for next season, so he was going to have to meet us a little later. What else was left for us to do but head to the beach?

Somewhere along the line, Carl realized that he'd forgotten the football that the guys were supposed to bring with them. So when we found a place to settle on the beach, Carl, Whitey and Dave-O set out to find a store with a football or something to preoccupy our time. SJ and I stayed at the beach and headed into the ocean. I must stress that at one time I was a competitive swimmer. I raced when I was little and then turned into synchronized swimmer. I did that competitively into university, competing for the University of Western Ontario. As embarrassing as you might think that is, I felt the need to point it out before describing my experience at the beach. I couldn't handle the waves and definitely got pulled under the water several times. I don't want anyone to get the impression that it was because I am a weak swimmer though, hence the aforementioned explanation. The waves were just that big and powerful. At least, I hope they were and it wasn't just me.

It didn't take long to get too much salt in my eyes and throat from the water and I thought the best course of action would be to head back to shore. SJ stayed in the water and I laid on the beach trying to soak up some rays. Eventually he came in, after being tossed around a little too much as well. It wasn't long after that when the other guys showed back up. They were empty-handed. Apparently they'd quickly given up on the idea of finding a football and instead went to a bar to drink. Seems like the obvious solution.

They didn't want to hang around the beach any longer than they'd already been standing there either. It was time for us to all head to another bar. When we got there they ordered drinks and only drinks right away, but I wasn't quite sure I was ready for that. I needed to get some food in me (despite my morning McDonald's run for a hash brown and a smoothie) and I decided I was going to order lunch. I tried to convince any of the other guys to get something too because I felt like I was going to be holding everyone up if I was the only one eating, but they all decided against it. There were going to wait until we heard from Chambers and then grab food on the way to his house. So I ate alone, though technically they were still with me. My meal stood alone and in retrospect it was a pretty great decision on my part. But I'll get to that later.

Chambers had called at some point during my meal and our time at the bar. He was home and we were welcome to make our way over. With a quick stop at the beer store we were soon headed into his amazing neighbourhood. All of the houses were beautiful and several were gated off for privacy. Chambers' place was one of those, so I figured it was going to be good. His house is awesome. It's open and beautiful and has everything a family could need I would think, including a pool table, a ping pong table and a pool, which is where we were headed. We spent some time lazing around the pool dipping into our beer supply before doing anything else.

The guys must have been pretty hungry the entire time though because they hadn't had anything since breakfast. Let me reiterate that I made the right choice in having lunch at the bar. They were going to stop for something on the way to Chambers' place and then figured we might make food there instead, but that didn't happen for several hours. A couple of the guys went to get meat for the barbeque and we were soon on our way to success. By then it was almost dinnertime so I was pretty much already hungry again.

Sometime during or after eating, Chambers' roommate from Czech Republic, Dan, got out some moonshine that he'd brought over here. We all passed it around at first just to smell it in all its glory, and that was bad enough. I didn't think I would ever feel the need to try it. But of course then someone had the genius idea to get a shot glass, put it on the Lazy Susan in the middle of the table, and spin it until it landed on some poor sucker who would then have to take a shot of the moonshine. Guess who it landed on first?

SJ got out his camera to take a video of me downing the first shot but I don't think it was as exciting as any of the guys had hoped. I took it like a champ. It was disgusting but I didn't want to look like a wimp. Success. We each ended up taking two or three shots of it before dinner was said and done and then headed inside to watch the ABL All-Star Game. The guys were still going to drink every time something was said that was on their list but I didn't think anyone would notice if I didn't participate. I needed my beers to go down a little slower than that.

The Bandits players (and Gonzo) lived up to the hype during the game. Gonzo was doing colour commentary, and did a great job, especially not really knowing most of the players and probably not having much preparation. Maestri had a good inning and was throwing gas the entire time. Yanagawa and Erasmus pitched well in the Brisbane uniform also. And Josh Roberts ended up making a great play from the outfield (though I'm not sure the guy was out) and he hit a home run (though it did happen when a catcher from our team was behind the plate, conveniently). And throughout the game we had more beer and more food. Chambers' parents had brought home several pizzas for us and somehow we were still hungry enough to eat them all.

After the game I made a sad attempt at playing Guitar Hero. I have never even seen someone play the game before, let alone participated, so it was pretty awful. Not to mention the fact that I was forced against my will to try it. I knew it would be embarrassing so I was trying to avoid it at all costs. Chambers tried to help me but even teaming up for Guitar Hero didn't make me look any better. Add another embarrassing moment to the list.

As soon as that was over and I could get away from it, I went outside to partake in some ping pong. We started playing normal ping pong and that eventually turned into beer pong and then into sting pong. For beer pong we teamed up. The first round was me and Chambers (Team World) against SJ and Carl (Team USA). We came close but we lost. I wasn't playing very well at the beginning. Team USA then took on Dave-O and Dan (another Team World) and beat them. Chambers and I had another chance and blew it in our second matchup, mostly that time because of Chambers. I had stepped up my game.

When we were done with the beer pong though, somehow a game of sting pong developed. It's just like ping pong except when you lose a point the other player gets to hit you as hard as they can with the ball on your bare back or stomach, or wherever the ball might land. Why did I eventually decide to take part in such a thing? I have no idea. I lasted about a half a round, losing miserably. Lucky for me though, SJ has the worst aim ever and he barely hit me. Losing points didn't seem to matter. And don't go thinking he was a nice guy or anything, missing on purpose. That wasn't the case. He just couldn't hit a target.

We all went to bed sometime after sting pong, with Dave-O, Dan and SJ in Dan's room and me, Whitey and Carl upstairs in a loft-like area with a couch and mattresses on the floor. And by going to bed, I mean Whitey and Carl were soundly asleep when SJ and Chambers came around trying to scare us from outside and causing a ruckus. I definitely had several objects thrown on me, and then my entire mattress was moved with me on it. Eventually they gave up, but I think it was mostly because they weren't getting a reaction out of anyone. Whitey and Carl weren't even moving and I was trying to ignore them. It worked and I had my chance to try and get some shuteye between all the snoring around me.